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The world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), has put unions around Australia on notice after it axed Teekay, the union-dominated tugboat provider, and replaced it with Queensland-based Rivtow.
BHP holds the right to operate all tugboat services in the lucrative port of Port Hedland and provided Teekay with the gift of being the sole tugboat operator for many years. Port Hedland is the world’s largest bulk export port that exported around 60% of Australia’s 700 million tonnes of iron ore in 2014.
Despite the slowdown in the mining and resources sectors, in 2014 the tugboat crews decided salaries ranging between $140,000 – $300,000 per year weren’t enough, launched industrial action and threatened to walk off the job. The action was supported by the Maritime Union of Australia, The Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers, and the Australian Maritime Officers Union. www.hellenicshipp...

US company to spend more than $200m to construct LNG terminal in Jamaica

American company, New Fortress Energy LLC, will invest more than $200 million to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Jamaica. The facility is expected to generate more than 200,000 metric tonnes of LNG annually, which will initially be supplied to the domestic market.
There are also plans to expand output for delivery to other Caribbean countries, thereby positioning Jamaica as a regional hub for the supply of LNG.
New Fortress was selected from a list of six entities which submitted bids to supply LNG to power the national energy grid, primarily through the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Old Harbour 190-megawatt gas fired power plant.
Chairman of the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team (ESET) Dr Vincent Lawrence noted that New Fortress was chosen as the developer of Jamaica’s LNG project, as the entity was the most competitive for JPS’ requirements.
“New Fortress was not only the lowest evaluated price for the volumes required by JPS, it clearly demonstrated its commitment and capability to supply gas as scheduled by the detailed engineering studies they had undertaken,” he said.
Lawrence said the terminal, which is to be built, owned and operated by New Fortress, is expected to be completed for commissioning by 2017/2018.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide up to $40 million to GN Terminal Enterprises Ltd. (Cyprus), which belongs to the GNT group, to finance the expansion of the existing grain terminal at Odesa port.
EBRD Senior Adviser for External Affairs Anton Usov told Interfax-Ukraine that the decision was made by the bank’s board on November 11.
He said that the credit agreement will be signed in December 2015.
The total cost of the Serseris Grain Terminal project includes the expansion of the terminal’s capacity and its storage facilities and has been assessed at $69 million. Initially, the terminal was named Serseris Grain Terminal. Serseris Holdings Limited (Cyprus) is a subsidiary of CHS Europe SA, which is part of U.S. CHS Inc.
CHS Inc. in spring 2009 said that the corporation had started investing in a joint project with GN Terminals (Odesa) on the creation of an export grain terminal in Ukraine on the Black Sea coast in Odesa with a capacity of 2 million tonnes a year. It was reported that CHS will manage part of the terminal, including its transport infrastructure, via CHS Europe office in Geneva (Switzerland), and would also market all of its grain.

State-owned Mormugao port, located on India’s western coast, has dropped a plan to deepen its channel to berth so-called capesize ships (the biggest of the dry bulk carriers) on a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis after the solitary price bid received in a public tender exceeded the budget.
The project—to deepen the port’s outer channel to 19.8 metres and the inner channel to 19.5 metres and maintain the water depth at that level over the next 12 years—was the first attempt by a port in India to implement dredging work on an annuity basis, a concept followed in the highways sector. South West Port Ltd, a unit of JSW Infrastructure Ltd, quoted Rs.1,640 crore for the contract, 17.56% more than the Rs.1,395 crore budgeted by Mormugao. The OP Jindal Group firm tied up with Dutch dredging contractor Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contracting Co. NV to take up the work.

Green Ship Programme Reaches New Milestone with Addition of over 50 Ships under the Singapore Flag

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) today recognised another 53 Green Ships from 41 companies that have qualified for the Green Ship Programme (GSP) at the Third Singapore Registry of Ships Forum (SRS Forum).
The GSP encourages Singapore-flagged ships to reduce carbon dioxide and sulphur oxides emissions. Qualifying Singapore-flagged ships can enjoy a reduction of Initial Registration Fees and a rebate on Annual Tonnage Tax. Since the GSP’s inception in 2011, 247 Green Ships under the Singapore Flag have joined the programme.
Additionally, 10 maritime companies signed the Maritime Singapore Green Pledge. This brings the total number of signees to 100 companies since the initiative’s inception in 2011. Companies signing the pledge commit to be responsible members of the international maritime community by supporting and promoting clean and green shipping in Singapore.

Plans are under way for a huge new ship repair yard to be built near the Port of Cabedelo in the municipality of Lucena in Brazil’s Paraiba province in the northeast of the country.
The Basin Drydock Company (BBDC) project envisages a facility that would be capable of drydocking even the biggest ships in the world merchant fleet.
If all goes to the developers’ plans the facility could be up and running by 2019.
Environmental licences have been applied for to the relevant Brazilian authorities.
If the repair yard comes to fruition it will bear the name Empresa de Docagens Pedra do Ingá (EDPI) and it would be well located for the major shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean. splash247.com/meg...

Brazil’s second-largest container terminal, Terminal de Conteineres de Paranaguá at the port of Paranagua, will soon be able to handle ships of more than 10,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units as a result of dredging.The Administração dos Portos de Paranaguá e Antonina, the port authority for Paranagua, which is also Brazil’s biggest port for grain exports, will be disbursing – on behalf of the federal government in Brasilia – 394 million reais ($103.77 million) to deepen the main channel to TCP and other terminals to 52.49 feet.The works will increase the low tide draft at berths of 40.35 feet to 45.27 feet.Brazil’s new Special Ports Minister Helder Barbalho said the extra draft will allow for an additional 1,050 containers to be stowed per voyage.Once completed, the maximum length of container vessels calling at TCP will be 366 meters (1,200 feet), up from today’s 336 meters. Vessels in the range of 6,000 to 9,000 TEUs will soon be replaced by vessels of more than 10,000 TEUs. The dredging will also position the port to capitalize on the opening of the expanded Panama Canal in 2016, when the size of ships transiting the canal will increase to 14,000 TEUs from 5,000 TEUs today.Paranaguá’s hinterland includes the states of Santa Catarina and Parana, which are home to large numbers of chicken exporters that provide a good percentage of TCP’s throughput.During the first eight months of this year TCP handled 470,000 TEUs, which was 6 percent higher than for the same period of 2014. The terminal handled 757,000 TEUs in all of 2014. Source : Journal of Commerce

A crane collapsed in Bourgas shipyard and seriously injured the woman operator. The serious accident happened due to the undeciphered load, which fell and collapsed the crane. The crane obliqued and the woman operator fell from big height. After that the machinery smashed over her and she was stuck under the wrecks for an hour before being rescued. The woman was stuck inside and was seriously injured. She was transported to the Emergency for medical treatment with life-threatening injuries. The 61-year-old woman suffered multiple injuries and has literally been shattered by the heavy machinery. The local authorities started an investigation about the accident and will follow inspection in the shipyard if all the safety measures were taken. She was transport by Emergency to the local hospital and currently doctors are trying to save her life. The reason for the accident was not caused by technical malfunction, but mostly due to human mistake and undeciphered cargo load.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has delivered six rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes to Contecon Manzanillo Sociedad Anopmina (CMSA), the Mexican subsidiary of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), one of the world’s leading container terminal operators. The order was booked into Cargotec’s 2015 first quarter order intake. www.ajot.com/news...

Firefighters remain on scene a blaze at the Port of Portland, in south-western Victoria, over a week after it first started.
The fire broke out about 8:00pm (AEDT) last Tuesday inside an 800-tonne, three-storey grain hopper.
Specialist fire crews from as far north as Wodonga have been called in to help extinguish the blaze.
Country Fire Authority operations officer Mark Gunning said although the fire had been contained, it was proving more challenging than first anticipated.
"At any one time we've got approximately 50 firefighters working on the ship," he said.
"Look, we've got a number of things, both firefighters but also specialist rescue crews are on hand because we're dealing with confined spaces, we're working at heights, there's a number of little things that are making the job difficult."
He said crews were hopeful it would be resolved by the end of the week.
"There's a number of dangerous activities to empty the fuel out of the silo, which includes the production of both combustible gases and gases that would asphyxiate people working around it, so it's a very slow operation, mainly because of the safety systems we have to put in place," he said. www.abc.net.au/ne...